PICList free PCB contest

CONTEST NOW CLOSED

Talk about supporting your
PICList! Tsvetan Usunov <usunov@olimex.com>
of http://www.olimex.com/pcb has
offered to make a PCB free and ship it to the designer free every month for
the PICList as a prize for a design contest. Contest entrys must be posted
to the list and PICList.com web site and will then always be available for
all the members as reference designs. Tsvetan's idea is that this will encourage
people to publish designs and get more good ideas out into the real world
for everyone to see.

Rules:

The designs to be made with PIC microcontrollers (or
code
compatible). No one will be angry if dozens of CMOS or TTL IC will be
used to help the poor PIC to solve the problem, but the design must use a
PIC or code compatible processor. In the past we have been very loose
with this and allowed some AVR and other boards that do not have any PIC
related device, but new entires MUST have a PIC or SX chip.

To be non-commercial projects. By that we mean that you will not remove the
design from the public domain and that you will not attempt to prevent other
people from makeing it. You can still sell it if you want.

To be posted on the PICLIST web site as open source software and open design
hardware so all PICLIST users may benefit from the knowledge.

Designs will be collected during a one month period. Each of the designs
will have a link to vote for the design and votes will be tallied until the
end of the following month. File downloads of the board layout will count
as 2 votes. Actual (paid) orders for boards will count as 5 votes. The design
with the most votes will be declared the winner and the designer will receive
a free board soon after.

Fine print:

Entering the contest means you will probably not be making a lot of money
off your design. No copyright. copyleft only. You are doing this to share
your design and get a board made for free so you can build one. The
only exception would be that having a winning design in the contest might
show someone what you are capable of and attract other work in the future.
Some time, YOU the piclister or jallister must prove just to yourself you
can do it. NOW, YOU CAN DO IT HERE !

After recieving boards, we expect the winner to let us know how the project
worked out. If the design had a small error, we need to let others know so
please let us know.

We will provide a link to make it easy to order the boards from olimex. This
is a way of rewarding them for sponsoring the contest and it is MY idea not
theirs. Remember: All the files will be available so if you want to order
it from your favorite board house, you can. I just want to make it easy,
and suggest that people reward olimex by ordering from them. If you are a
competitor of olimex, sponsor your own contest.

Entering: CONTEST NOW CLOSED

Use the form below to enter a description of your design. Change Question
to Comment in the list above the text box and press the "Post" button. If
you are a member, it will be an "Add" button. If you are not a member, I
will review the post and allow others to see it if it is ok.

Zip up your design files (including source and board layout) and ftp it to
ftp://ftp.piclist.com/in (a write
only directory) or email it to
jamesnewton at @spam@piclist.com and
I will review it and link your description to it. This is necessary to prevent
me from becoming an unwitting host of porno, etc...

hi, I have a pic16f877 development board i've designed with a large protype
area. I find it very helpful when developing new projects. Would you folks
be interested in it? I can send you a jpg of my board if you are interested.
should be of interest to some of the readers at your site. no charge for
my service.

When Can I get my boards?
James
Newton replies: I wish I could say that each month, one set of board
files will be produced, but since there have been no viable entries in a
long time, the actual fact is that you can get board files made as soon as
you have submitted files that can be
produced.+

This unit combines a 7 day, 7 event twenty four hour timer with a water
consumption / cost meter written using the Wiz-C compiler from Forest Electronics
www.fored.co.uk or
www.dontronics.com.au and a two
line LCD is used as the display.

http://www.piclist.com/images/boards/guage/index.htm
This is an electronic digital caliper to computer (RS-232) interface. This
will work with the inexpensive calipers, micrometers and height gauges that
are typically made in China. The connector on the measuring instrument will
have 4 pins, and the owner's manual will typically describe the output as
24 bit 90 kHz synchronous. This does not work the name brand instruments
- Fowler, Mitutoyo, Brown & Sharpe, etc..

My project is a 3-phase induction motor powered go-kart using 2 avrs with
PWM connected to igbt drivers to drive the motor and a another avr in a ps2
controller with a uhf transmitter for remote control.

It is a three part project,
-One board for control of the pwm outputs connected to high current igbt
switches with voltage, current and speed sense.
-Second board for general control with LCD screen, dual pwm power supplies
and a pwm charging circuit, twi or uart transmission to igbt controller,
connections for pedals and rs232 interface, and an onboard uhf receiver
-Third board is drop-in replacement for playstation dual-shock controller
for remote control using all controller buttons and potentiometer
joysticks.

The project can use simple software algorithms to implement a sine wave on
the pwms for simple control, or an intensive software program (that I am
currently writing) can be used to greatly enhance the available speed, torque
and control.

(ed: Robert later contacted us saying: "I do not require to be entered
into the contest anymore as I have already placed an order with Olimex to
get the boards made, and a few more too. But by all means list my boards
and schematics for others to
use."}

"An experiment in absentee gardening "
Or
"a PIC16F84 based network control module"

This design is based around Denis Petrov's "WWW server in a PIC16F84". This
is designed to control upto eight outputs from a computer network. Such uses
are buzzers heaters or small motors.

To be perfectly honest I was planning on using it in my green house with
a web cam so I don't have to water anything. I will be getting some silicone
pipe (with holes in it from a thumb tack) and a water pump and essentually,
tending my tomatoes and cress from my bedroom. (Although I do understand
that the current draw from the pump motor will surely damage the 7805 or
at best cause the current to drop and reset the 'F84. I plan to use a solderless
breadboard and some discreet componants for that purpous. Could anyone lend
some helpful critisism?

As of the moment I plan to operate the pump with a darlington pair chip I
salvaged from a VCR. (this will be mounted off-board on a solderless bread
board.) (The pump motor is rated at 500mAh which is supprisingly low, but
it is a very small one from a wind-screen washer mechanism I belive)

It also utilises a pair of independantly operating 7805 regulators to not
brown-out the PIC and to drive other small devices.

Comments: {ed: Nothing for months and then when it rains, it pours! I
hope we can find a way to do all of these...}

Temp/Humidity Sensor: After a discussion about the humidity in the
house I made this Temp/Humidity sensor. It display's his value on a Hitachi
based LCD.With tens accuracy..... It is designed with a PIC16F876 a little
bit of an overkill......
Temp sensor is a DS1620 and the humidity sensor is a HS15P.....
File's are send to James...

a) Get a Programmer for the ATMEL AVR with USB Interface, as my laptop has
no parallel / serial port.
(As all the ports are on feed through, it is also possible to programm the
AVR to get a JTAG interface)

b) Get the possibility to play with several USB IC's (TUSB 3510 and FTDI
232BM)
(The TUSB is interesting, but there's no SW available, so as fallback the
FTDI can be used)

c) Get a rapid prototyping board for the ATMEL AVR (a "daughter" board can
be put on top of
the board, and access all the ports of the Atmel.

Also it is possible to generate daughterboards for all the AVR's, so you
are not limited to the 8515.
With a little effort (JTAG Programming SW) also the new MCUs can be
used....
(Scalability was a goal, too)

Background:
At my day job, we build custom test equipment and fixturing. (See attached
picture for a typical machine.) For troubleshooting purposes, I often need
to set up the equipment to automatically cycle for an extended period of
time. In the past, I would either modify the existing PLC program or borrow
an PLC from an upcoming project. The downside was that I might forget to
restore the program to its original state (possible safety issue) or we
wouldnt have an extra (expensive) PLC lying around to borrow. Plus,
I always had to drag the laptop out to the shop floor and knock together
a quick little program to make everything happen. I got tired of doing this,
so one Saturday I built this little project with about $5 worth of components.

Circuit Description:
1. Power from the machine, typically 24 vdc, is supplied to J2-1 and J2-2,
which feeds a 7805 voltage regulator to supply the PIC.
2. Reset button on MCLR allows user to reset the PIC and start the timing
sequence from zero.
3. ALIVE led flashes every 0.5 seconds just to let the user know the thing
is executing its program.
4. An optoisolator (from my junkbox) is driven by GP2.
5. The optoisolator drives a relay robbed from a dead PLC.
Link
to picture of the PLCLink
to product information
6. The relays coil voltage is 4.5vdc. Setting JP1 allows the relay
to use power either from the 7805 regulator or from the machine. R4 and R5
need to be sized based on the supply voltage and rated coil voltage.
7. Relay contacts (J1-1 and J1-2) are wired in parallel with the machines
start button.
8. Potentiometer allows the user to manually set the amount of time between
subsequent machine cycles.

Software Description:
A PIC12F675 reads the voltage from the potentiometer wiper connected to AN0.
Timer0 rolls over on a 0.5 second interval and toggles ALIVE led to let the
user know the program is running. A register is also incremented for each
timer rollover. When the number of timer0 roll-overs is greater than or equal
to the A/D counts, the relay will turn on for 0.5 seconds to initiate a machine
cycle. Thus, by setting the pot, the delay between machine cycles can be
adjusted from approximately 0 to 8.5 minutes. The contacts of the relay are
wired in parallel with the machines start button(s).

Let me know if I forgot to include anything or you need any clarifications.

Regards,
Aaron Garber

{ed: Excellent! I've forwarded your entry to Olimex they will be produced
and mailed to you.}

VS1002 eval board by Ryan
Pelaez. This is an evaluation board for the VS1002 MP3 Decoder. It has all
the external parts to operate. This "breakout" board pulls all the communication
lines out to 0.1 spacing to use on a breadboard or protoboards. Have fun
on all of your MP3 projects. :>WINNER Note: After Ryan's submission the entry rules have been
tightened a bit so that a PIC or related microcontroller must be included.

The IR Widget captures the infrared signals used by remote controls. It is
able to determine the carrier frequency and demodulate the carrier in the
digital or analog domain. The captured information can be used to reproduce
or recognize the signal. The hardware is designed to be as simple and low
cost as possible. The captured infrared signal is displayed by a Windows
program.

I have designed another one.... Totally based on the ETHERNET PICTAIL
daughterboard, whith two extra motor drivers. I build this thing only to
go on experimenting with controling steppermotors through ethernet. Placed
a PIC18F4550 on the board and the ENC28J60 Ethernet controller. Didn't test
it so far... Include the Schematic, gerber and the Microchipstack where
I have based this design on...

Sadly our process do not allow non plated holes on the board
2008/11/05 we recieved
updated
files from Jody and his boards have been produced.

This is a development board for the new PIC32 microcontrollers. It features
onboard ICSP programming (just plug in a serial cable), EEPROM bank and interface
to the BISM II bluetooth module (see:
http://uk.rs-online.com/web/search/searchBrowseAction.html?method=getProduct&R=0188949)
(which means it should also work with the WISM wireless lan chip by the same
manufacturers). Ben Stabler+

This project read's three DS600 temperature sensors from Maxim/Dallas and
two pressure sensors and display's it on a POWERTIP 2 lines by 20 character
LCD. I used it to check the [air conditioning] from a car; now I can read
the [hi and low] pressure in the system and the temperature inside [and outside]
the car and in the system......

the
bug by Ole Wulff s WINNER
This is seen before, but this time it is complete!
A simple GSM based monitoring and controlling system on a small board with
a PIC processor holding a solid program able to control a various types of
GSM modems and Cell phones.
Four inputs, one power output prepared for monitoring and controlling through
SMS messages on your mobile phone. Send a SMS and turn on the relay. Get
a SMS if the inputs are activated or the power is lost.
You can build it in your existing alarm system, or as a stand alone system.
Use it in you car or where ever you like. You decide it.

This article includes the full documentation and all you will need. It for
free and you can use it or modify if you like (if you like it, or do the
ultimate modification feel free to drop me a mail :-).

Regards,
Ole Wulff (owdk-at-yahoo-dot-com)
ps. I have send you the files as an email.

There are many versions of WWVB clock designs available on the web. Commercial
"atomic" clocks are inexpensive and widely available, but I wanted to try
my hand at designing one to gain insight into WWVB reception and to learn
a little about programming a PIC microcontroller. My version is not the simplest
available, but it works well and I think it offers a few unique features.

Receives time broadcast from WWVB, Fort Collins, CO

Auto syncs internal time with WWVB time

This version is for Pacific Standard Time, and auto detects/corrects for
Daylignt Savings Time

This is a replacement for the Ampere meter in a old Dodge (from 1978 orso)
It indicates the current flow and the amount of current. So you can see if
you are charging the battery or discharging the battery and with how much
current Software in CCS C. PCB in Mentor Graphics.

Jody has provided an update to his
Nico_2xDruk_3xTemp
3 temperature and 2 pressure sensor reading board to adapt it for USB connection
to the PC. The prior version communicated via RS232, but that is getting
hard to find on some PCs so USB is a real improvement. The Pic code generated
a virtuel Com port and so the PC code is the same as the before. Jody uses
this to monitor car AC systems.

3# PWM output to control three high power RGB led's. I used it to control
the colors in a swimming pool. You can send different colors to this board
through the serial connection.

For the futere I have also placed a RS485 connection(for long distance) and
IR control hardware is present although not tested it so far.

Different patterns are stored in the EEPROM. And a LCD to show some info.
When using the colored LED's the normal lighting of the pool are switched
off. This is done by the relays. The sequence speed you can vary with the
potentiometer.

Recieved after the contest closed:

This is an evaluation
development board for PIC PIC32MX440F512H microcontroller. It consist of
a 5V and 3.3V regulator, pin headers connectors connected to each one
PICâ¬s port, 8MHz crystal, MAX232 RS232 translator, and
an ICSP (in circuit serial programming) connector. On board there are also
8 LEDs for PORTs signaling, MCP9800 2-Wire I2C High-Accuracy Temperature
Sensor, MCP4821 a 12 Bit DA MCP4821 with SPI Interface, LM4040 2.048V voltage
reference to use it with the micro onboard ADs.
Thanks

Nick Christodoulou
Technical School Teacher
MSc Automation and Control Systems+

pelucheUSBWAV
I've built a WAV player with USB interface. It's based on Microchip parts
(18F2550, DAC SPI) and a 8Mb SPI Memory from ST.
Schematic is rather easy: it can work USB-controlled (for upload and/or playing
WAV files, using a simple software) or stand alone (by means of switches).
It can store (currently, project was first developed in fall-2004) up to
1min circa of 22050 mono WAV files, or a double quantity if sampling rate
is reduced to 11025. Of course, greater storage can be provided, but it's
useful right now as a "music player" to be contained into toys, or as a "message
announcer" on automatic doors or alike.
Future improvements may mean use of SD Memories, and support of USB MassMemory
protocol, to allow for the player to be seen as a standard Pen Drive on
PCs.+{ed: we are looking forward to recieving
the board files for this project}

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